


bowling?

by preeteevee



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron Legendary Defender, dreamworks voltron, vld - Fandom
Genre: Coffee Shop, College, College AU, M/M, Shatt, University, University AU, coffee shop AU, klance, non-binary Pidge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-01-16 01:50:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12333066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/preeteevee/pseuds/preeteevee
Summary: college sucks. mainly because lance has to work a shitty job in a coffee shop. but hey? brightside? his co-worker is pretty fiiiine.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i've never written fanfic before so oh-ho here we go lads. probs gonna be a bunch of errors, but eh. i have no mcfuckin idea how ao3 works so bear that in mind. strong language? do i need to put that? don't read if you're a tiny child, basically. cool thanks bye.

The steady hubbub of the coffee shop descended into calm as the last few customers passed through the exit, depositing paper cups into the bin by the door as they left. 

 

Lance leant across the counter, watching the customers depart, only to come tumbling back into reality due to a smack against the back of his head. 

 

“Ow,” He whined, rubbing the wound with a scowl. A scowl that he then shot at his co-worker.  _ Stupid Keith _ . “D’you mind? I’m trying to daydream.”

 

“Sorry, McClain,” Keith said snidely, knocking another cup against Lance’s head. “Didn’t see you behind that giant head of yours.”   
  


“Take that back, you dick,” Lance retorted, pushing himself up from his elbows, readying fists in front of him to fight. At the sight of his clenched hands, both him and Keith fell into fits of laughter.

 

“Ah, good one, Lance,” Keith said, mouth quirking up at the side. “What you doing this weekend? You know, when we get off.”

 

“Family stuff,” Lance said with a shrug. It was times like this, times when the shop was quiet and the cleaning staff hadn’t inevitably phoned in sick yet, that Lance always looked forward to. You see, Keith wasn’t a buddy-buddy, he was a work buddy. Of course, if Lance weren’t so perpetually shy, he’d have asked if Keith wanted to hang in the park or, like, watch sport without falling asleep or whatever it was guys-bro-guys did.

 

But, unfortunately, Lance was a wuss. 

 

“Cool,” Keith said, nodding as if Lance were so-totally-the-most-interesting-guy-in-the-room right now. Well, since they were the only two in the room...nope, Keith would still beat him. There was no competition. “I’m, uh...cool.”

 

“I mean…” Lance began, knowing he was a darned softie and that, if it came to it, he would cancel his non-existent plans with his family in favour of spending all day with Keith at the coffee shop, lounging on the counter and feeding each other bite-sized biscuits...or...something…

 

“You mean…?”

 

“The family stuff sounds boring as shit anyway,” Lance said, stretching his arms above his head in complete-cool-not-having-a-crush mode. He stopped stretching, arms rigid above his head, when Keith shot him _ the look _ . The look, as Lance had nicknamed it after mere hours of working with Keith, was a simple manoeuvre of eyes wider than planets and a pinched, little pout. “Uh, Hunk and I were gonna...go...bowling?”

 

Shit. Bowling?

 

“Really,” Keith asked, blinking slowly enough for Lance to count his lashes. One, Two...okay, so Lance was a liar  _ and  _ a loser. “Would you mind if…?”

 

“You’re totally invited,” Lance announced with a grin. He wondered how he looked grinning; he knew that when Keith smiled, his baby-puppy eyes grew to astronomically large moons, that his sharp chin tilted forwards in a way that was just asking to be kissed.

 

_ Nope _ , Lance thought, gripping the sides of his hair between his fingers.  _ None of that, nope _ .

 

“Lance,” Keith mumbled, poking Lance’s ribs until the boy pulled himself upright again.

 

“Meet us at the, uh, bowling place.”

 

Keith raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know where that is, do you?”

 

“Come on,  _ please _ ,” Lance groaned, reaching across the counter to pick up a discarded cup. He threw it at Keith’s head, chuckling when it bounced off of a stony expression. “Give me a break, man.”

 

“I can drive you there,” Keith said quietly, then suddenly crossed his arms and buried his chin in the crook of them. “I mean, if you want.”

 

“Cool,” Lance exclaimed, shooting Keith finger guns, because Lance was first and formerly bisexual. “Can Hunk tag along?”

 

“Course,” Keith said, reaching down to pick up the cup, Lance’s previous weapon, and scrunched it beneath his fingertips while maintaining eye-contact.  _ Spooky guy. _ “But, just a warning, it  _ is  _ a bike.”

 

“What?” Lance hadn’t meant to yell.

 

Keith nodded slowly as the cup crunched, the noise only ceasing once it had been compacted into a jagged little ball. Keith threw the ball at Lance. He deserved that.

 

“Can you handle it, McClain,” Keith taunted, dipping one hip out to the side because he was a hipster, a fact Lance hated about him. There was absolutely nothing endearing about beanies and fake glasses and a misinformed disrespect for the authorities. Absolutely. Nothing. At. All. 

 

“Sure,” Lance croaked, blinking once before redirecting his energy to the slouchy potato-sack hat sat atop Keith’s head. He narrowed his eyes. _ Stupid beanie. Stupid, sexy beanie.  _

 

“Cool,” Keith said, snatching his keys from his back pocket. “I think we can leave, Pidge has an early shift tomorrow, so they can clean it, then.”

 

“Cool, cool, cool,” Lance muttered, fumbling in his own back pocket for the bus ticket he knew he hadn’t misplaced.  _ Ugh, not again _ . 

 

“And Lance?”

 

“Mm?”

 

“Stop pouting,” Keith said with a roll of his eyes. “It’s too damn adorable.”

  
_ Uh, oh _ , Lance thought, groaning once the door shut behind Keith.  _ This is not a crush, this can’t be a crush. And tomorrow can’t be a date. Thank goodness Hunk will be there.  _

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so sorry for this pile of crap but it's fun to write so enjooooy.

“Uh, I don’t think we’re all gonna fit on there,” Hunk assessed as the three boys stood, all eyes trained on the bike. Like, it was a cool bike, but what the  _ quiznak  _ was Keith thinking. And what the quiznak did quiznak mean? Lance had heard Keith muttering it when he, on occasion, muddled up orders or spilled coffee beans over the floor. Lance was 97% certain that it was some ancient language that Keith was  _ hipster  _ enough to have memorised.

 

“It’ll be fine,” Keith said, patting the cherry lacquer of his bike. _ Smug-ass, sexy motorbike guy _ . “Hunk can go in the middle.”   
  


“Nuh, uh,” Hunk said, whipping his head from side to side. It seemed even an action as minimal as that had a negative effect on him, as he had to pause, inhale, and take a moment before continuing. “I get crazy motion sick, I don’t wanna throw up on you.”

 

“Okay,” Keith said, meeting Hunk with warm eyes. “Lance.”

 

“What?” Lance exclaimed, waving his arms above his head because this was a  _ seriously-urgent situation _ . He couldn’t spend his first bike ride clutching to the back of a pretty guy with swishy hair, because...because  _ no _ . “No, that means he’ll just throw up on me!”

 

“Better you than Keith,” Hunk said, and Lance looked over in horror to see that Keith was nodding his head. Those _ dick-bags _ . 

“Can’t we put Hunk in a sidecar,” Lance moaned, trying his best to pout at Keith. But maybe he wasn’t as pretty as Keith, since it seemed to have little to no effect. Keith just shrugged, grumbled nonsensically, and then Lance found himself shoved in the middle of his two friends,  _ desperately  _ hoping that he wouldn’t make things weird with Keith and  _ desperately  _ hoping that his back remained vomit-free. 

 

The ride was surprisingly uneventful. Apart from the fact that Lance screamed the whole journey. 

 

“Lance,” Keith had groaned from in front of him, waist twisting beneath Lance’s arms. “Shut up or I’ll swerve you into the fucking air.”

 

Lance had replied with a scream. He thought it was sufficient.

 

It turned out that the bowling alley wasn’t far from the campus, which lead Lance into the realisation that he  _ really should go outside more often _ . It held a bar inside, tucked into the corner, and could definitely be the perfect place for wooing potential lovers.

 

So what if he had a maybe-sort-of-crush on his co-worker? Lance was a teenage boy. A teenage boy with a roommate more-than-happy to skip out of their dorm for a couple of hours to provide Lance with his oh-so-needed privacy.  _ What? _

 

“Drinks?” Hunk asked, gesturing to the bar with his thumb. Keith nodded with a small smile, while Lance just winked in response. Because it was Hunk. Because that’s how they were.

 

“To tell the truth,” Lance said once Hunk had left in the direction of the bar. The talking wasn’t necessary, really, but Lance didn’t like to leave more than a moment of silence when he could be flirting, uh, chatting. “I’ve never been bowling.”

 

Keith raised both eyebrows. “What? How?”

 

“Keith, my buddy, my main man,” Lance said, throwing an arm around Keith’s shoulder in a total bro-hetero way. “Why impress the ladies with bowling when I can impress them with this?” He was pointing to his face. Keith swatted his hand down.  _ Rude _ .

 

“Mm, and I wonder why it hasn’t worked.”

 

“Who said it hasn’t worked?!”

 

“You’re out with two guys,” Keith drawled, gesturing between himself and Hunk, who was now making his way back over to them, three bottles balanced between his hands. “On a Saturday night.”

 

“You never know,” Lance said with a pout. “I could be banging Hunk.”

 

“Ew, that’s so gross,” Keith said, face wrinkling at the thought.

 

“Yeah, it is a bit,” Lance agreed. Hunk was his brother. His brother from another two fathers. But Hunk’s dads were practically bros with Lance’s mum and they’d even spent some Christmases together, so…“Guess that just leaves you, pretty boy.”

 

“I’m dating someone,” Keith said with a shrug as he accepted a bottle of beer from Hunk. Lance took one, too, nudging a shoulder against Hunk as a sign of gratitude. He then downed the bottle.

 

Of course pretty-boy-Kogane was seeing someone. Of-fucking-course. And Lance would bet his favourite jacket that they were prettier than Lance. _ Fuck _ . 

 

“You know who’s hot?” Lance said to Hunk, trying to seem as if the segway were causal, and not totally-completely-petty-derived. “Nyma. Performing Arts major. Blonde.  _ Hot _ .”

 

“Ugh,” Hunk grunted, rolling his eyes as he took a sip of his beer. So what if Hunk thought he was gross, Lance didn’t need validation. Nyma  _ was  _ hot. And she probably thought Lance was, too, no doubt. Most people did. Actually, it got tedious after a while. 

 

“What about you, Hunk?” Keith asked quietly, nibbling around the top of his bottle. Gosh damn, was he cute when he did that. “Date-wise.”

 

Lance hadn’t meant to burst out laughing. He  _ really  _ hadn’t. Because he  _ knew  _ what would happen. Hunk stood on his foot. And fuck, it hurt. 

 

“Am I missing something?” Keith asked, looking bewildered. 

 

“Yeah,” Lance choked out, holding himself back from answering: my number. Keith was unavailable now. Keith was dating someone. “Hunk is fucking ace/aro.”

 

“Oh,” Keith said, hiding his eyes behind eyebrows. “Um.”

 

“S’cool,” Hunk said, raising his bottle in Keith’s direction. “It’s not like it’s a touchy subject, it just means me and Pidge can sit back and watch Lance  _ suffer _ .”

 

“They set me up a lot,” Lance said, smiling fondly at Hunk. It was a shame Pidge worked Saturdays, it would have been nice to have both of his best friends out partying with him. 

 

Keith turned to Hunk. “Who have you got your eye on for him next,” Keith asked, quirking one eyebrow up. 

“Hm,” Hunk said, tapping his chin. “I’d have to confer with Pidge, of course, but probably a jock of some sort. Maybe a Sports major? I’m sure Matt can hook you up with someone, Lance.”

 

“I’d rather hook up with Matt,” Lance muttered, receiving punches on both of his arms. “Ow, why?”

 

“Pidge’s brother,” Hunk said at the same time Keith said, “Shiro.”

 

Lance decided to focus on Keith, since Hunk’s protectiveness was understandable. “You know Shiro?”

 

“Um,” Keith said, staring into the bottom of his drink. “Yeah?”

 

“Awesome,” Lance exclaimed, because Matt’s boyfriend was really-super-cool. He was the mysterious type: an Engineering major in his final year, with a tight ass and silver hair. Of course someone cool like that knew someone cool like Keith. “Shiro’s a bro.”

 

“Mm,” Keith hummed, swilling the beer around in the bottom of his bottle. “Are we gonna bowl...or?”

  
“I’d rather get wasted,” Lance admitted, resting his head on Hunk’s shoulder, because Hunk was Lance’s personal teddy-bear. 

 

“Alright,” Keith sighed, sounding defeated. “We’ll bowl next time, though. Promise?”

 

_ Next time _ . Keith wanted a next time? 

 

_ Awesome _ . 

 

“Sure,” Lance agreed, offering his hand out. Keith shook it once, and then the three boys set to work. Luckily, the bar had shots. Well, it was pretty close to the college campus, so catering to that certain demographic wasn’t unusual. 

 

Ten shots later, Lance began to feel overwhelmingly happy. He was pretty sure that’s when he threw up on Keith’s shoes and fell asleep in Hunk’s arms.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's a shortie, keep a look out for another chapter (probably longer) when i get enough free time.

“Shiro,” Keith whined, tugging on the back of Shiro’s bomber jacket. “Pleeeeeaaaaase.”

 

“What is it you want, Keith?” Shiro groaned, shrugging Keith off with a frown.

 

“I just want someone to date me.”

 

One of Shiro’s eyebrows rose. “Keith, bro, I-”

 

“Oh my god, Shiro, just ask your boyfriend if he has any teammates that wanna fake date the kid with the mullet,” Keith drawled, letting himself crumple on the floor. Was he being overdramatic? Not in the slightest. This was an astronomical catastrophe, not that he knew what that meant, but he’d heard Lance say it and it sounded _cool_.

 

“You don’t have a mullet,” Shiro replied softly, ruffling Keith’s curls for good measure. “You just have long hair. It’s cute, Matt says it’s cute, you’re good.”  


“Well great, it’s got Matt’s stamp of approval,” Keith said flatly, tugging at the dark ringlets around his ears. He then looked back up to his brother, widening his eyes for good measure. “So about the date thing-”  


“No, Keith.”

 

“ _Shiro_.”

 

“Why?” Shiro demanded, throwing his arms up. “Why do you want this?”

 

“Lies, Shiro,” Keith huffed, rolling over on the floor. “Fricking lies, that’s why.”

 

“Fine,” Shiro said after a minute, and was immediately thanked with a tight waist-squeezing hug from Keith. “But I’m not going to ask Matt. I have enough friends of my own, I’ll find you someone.”  


“Shiro, you’re literally a god.”

 

Shiro snorted, wrapping his arms around Keith’s shoulders. “Obviously.” 


	4. Chapter 4

 

“Kogane!”

 

Keith turned at the call of his name, surprise arching his eyebrows as the source of the voice jogged up to him. Lance Mc-Fuckin’-Clain. 

 

“Hey, Lance,” He said with a small smile, a smile that was thrown into twisted chaos as Lance slung his arm through Keith’s. “Uh…”

“Morning, darling,” Lance grinned, skipping along next to Keith as the made their way across campus. “Where are you heading?”

 

“My lecture?” Keith replied, leaning away from Lance so that the other boy could fully appreciate his scowl. “Why?”

 

“No,” Lance said with a laugh that was 100% illegal when hanging off of Keith’s arm.  _ Gosh _ . “I mean, which block?”

 

“Going to the studio,” Keith said, pointing towards the large glass building in front of them. It consisted of three floors, each with varying sizes of practice and recording rooms tucked to the front of the building, fit with soundproofed glass, a stack of amps, three microphones and a mixing deck. The lecture halls were at the back of the building. Keith groaned. He wasn’t looking forward to an hour stuffed in a crammy, leather-scented hall surrounded by the sweat of a hundred other bored students.

 

He just wanted to hit the practice rooms. 

 

Lance nodded, bumping his shoulder against Keith’s. “Cool, cool, I have to go to the science block.” He paused, twitching his mouth from side to side.  _ Cute _ . “Catch you later, mullet.”

 

“If you call me that one more time,” Keith said, letting a glint of challenge slip into the words. “I’ll be the one catching you.”

 

“Ooh, hot,” Lance mocked, poking Keith’s nose. “Your, uh, date...person...wouldn’t like that.”

 

Keith cleared his throat. “No they would not.”  _ Oh, frick frack on a fricking fracker _ . “Goodbye Lance.”

 

“Bye, baby.”

 

He was going to kill that guy. Softly. With music.  _ What? _ A piano could crush even the lankiest of noodles. 

 

Unfortunately, Keith wouldn’t get the chance, as right in front of the door to the studio stood his brother. 

 

“What do you want?” Keith asked flatly.

 

Shiro only laughed, punching Keith with his good arm in that charming, elder-brotherly way. “I’m here with your date, bro.”

 

Keith felt his eyebrows raise. “Really? Who?”

 

The person that stepped out from behind Shiro was...magnificent. Their skin was the colour of sunsets, their hair billowing around their shoulders in shimmering shades of pearl. Their eyes were so bright and blue the sky seemed inferior compared to them. The only problem? They were a  _ girl. _

 

Keith tried, he really did, but he couldn’t hold back the laugh. “Shiro, buddy, my main man, no one's gonna believe this!”

 

Shiro frowned. “Why?”

 

“Because I’m super fricking gay, that’s why!”

 

“No one knows that,” Shiro replied softly. “Besides, this is  _ Allura _ . No one would turn down  _ Allura _ .”

 

Keith narrowed his eyes. “Did you.”

 

“No.” Shiro swallowed. “She turned me down,  _ anyway _ , the point is: we’re going to make this fake official-”

 

“How?”

 

“Matt’s throwing a party tonight.” Shiro paused for a moment, eyes measuring Keith. “Have you ever watched ‘Easy A’?”

 

“I saw Lance watching it on his phone once-”

  
“Doesn’t matter, it’s a simple plan.” Shiro patted Keith on the shoulder, before turning to Allura with a grin. “This can’t  _ not  _ go brilliantly.”


End file.
